Profile

Dr Bisht is a Ph.D from Diplomatic Studies Division, Jawaharlal Nehru University, where she wrote her thesis on Multi-stakeholder negotiations on security and development. Her country expertise in South Asia is restricted to Bhutan and Pakistan. She also works at the intersection of strategy and philosophy and is particularly interested in non-western sources of diplomatic practices in Asia. Her book, ‘Kautilya’s Arthashastra: Philosophy of Strategy’ is currently in the publication stage with Routledge. Interested in the concept of water diplomacy, her research engagement has highlighted the micro and macro narratives related to water governance and water diplomacy in South Asia. She has conducted stakeholder engagements and dialogues in South Asia to identify the political, cultural and ecological perspectives pertaining to rivers and riparian communities. She was a consultant to IUCN-India in 2017, where she co-authored a course on ‘Hydro-diplomacy in South Asia’ in collaboration with Dhaka University. The course was pilot-tested in India and Bangladesh in 2017 with mid-level water professionals. She was also a lead investigator in India, for a project undertaken in collaboration with WWF-Pakistan, based in Lahore from 2016 to 2017.